The
Kennesaw State softball program is no stranger to those at Cherokee High
School. Currently three members of the Owls softball team were teammates at
Cherokee before coming to Kennesaw State with juniors Sharon Swanson and Abbey
Mixon and sophomore Natalie Rhodes.
Swanson
explained that she really didn’t know where she was going to attend college,
but everything felt really good while talking to KSU Head Coach Scott Whitlock
and she decided to make the move to Kennesaw, Ga.
Swanson
said the transition from high school to college was a lot easier knowing Mixon
was coming to Kennesaw State as well.
“I
feel like we have chemistry since we did play on the same team,” Sharon Swanson
said.
So
when Rhodes was trying to find the right college Kennesaw State seemed like a
good choice.
“It
was easier,” Rhodes said. “I was more comfortable.”
Part
of the reason Kennesaw State has plucked so many players from Cherokee High
School in Canton, Ga. is because Cherokee’s Head Coach Tanya Carlisle was a
member of the Kennesaw State softball team that won the Division II national
championship in 1995.
Picking
up players from Cherokee High has served the Owls well as Sharon Swanson is
currently second in the A-Sun with 34 career homers. Swanson also leads the
Owls in runs scored with 37, while Rhodes ranks fifth with 21. Senior pitcher
Mixon has accounted for 10 of the Owls 32 wins this season.
However,
the Owls hit a rough patch this in the middle of the season. They began to lose
a handful of games here and there.
“I
think we came together after a talk with our sports psychologist Tiffany
[Jones]. That turned us around,” Swanson said. “She told us to play for
ourselves and get out there and do what we do best and we are all great
athletes at a D-I school and they are capable of doing that. We turned it
around after that conversation.”
The
conversation was exactly what the Owls needed to hear to change the course of
the season.
“I
think it was a huge spark, out whole season turned around after we talked to
her. It was huge.”
The
Owls advanced after downing the No. 4 Lady Bisons, 9-2, to face No. 6 Stetson
for a chance to go to the conference final where FGCU awaits.
The 2013 season will see more teamates of Natalie Rhodes joining the Owls. She and 4 new freshmen coming in played together on the Atlanta Vipers coached by Phil Berry out of Woodstock, GA. That should be very exciting for all.
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